


Keeping (Icing) it Together

by Writing_Wren



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alex needs to learn to unwind, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, F/F, New Family, luckily sam is there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 14:33:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17143541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writing_Wren/pseuds/Writing_Wren
Summary: Alex really wants her first Christmas living with the Arias girls to go perfectly. The universe is testing her. Sam helps her keep it together.





	Keeping (Icing) it Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StoriesbyReese](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StoriesbyReese/gifts).



> Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and happy new year StoriesbyReese!

The Christmas spirit is something Alex hasn’t felt for a very long time. Not really. Not since her father had disappeared. When her mother withdrew into grief, and the alien she was supposed to call sister needed Alex for everything. She had hated Christmas that year, but she had pretended anyway. Because when she pretended that she enjoyed the pretty lights on the tree, or the too sweet cocoa, or the slightly dry turkey, then her mother would look less sad, and Kara could be easily encouraged to throw herself into the holiday instead of bothering Alex.

A lot has changed since Alex was a teenager. Her mother doesn’t need excess holiday cheer to smile anymore. Kara really does feel like her sister now, and she throws herself into the holiday season of her own accord, no longer looking to Alex for direction. They have others to celebrate with now as well. Winn, James, J’onn, Lena, Lucy, and now, for the past two years Sam, and Ruby too.

Even with all that family. Family who can take on some of the responsibilities that come with the season, who can be there with smiles for each other when one of them can’t, and provide hugs, and alcohol when smiling through just won’t cut it. Even with all of that, Alex has never really recaptured the Christmas spirit.

She’s wanted to, but every year she finds herself smiling extra wide at the pretty lights, and the too sweet cocoa. The turkey improves. Well on some years at least. She smiles that little bit too wide, just in case her mother has a turn, or Kara feels lost, or anyone else in their patchwork family is straining under the weight of any of their assorted traumas.

Normally it isn’t a problem. Alex is the eldest daughter. The big sister. She looks after them all, and even smiling too wide she finds some enjoyment in amongst all the celebrations, even if she never feels that old Christmas magic.

Except this year she isn’t just the eldest daughter, or the big sister.

This year she is a co-parent.

Sort of. Mostly. She and Sam haven’t really talked about it, not officially. Somewhere along the line—even before Alex had moved in with them a few months ago—Ruby had started being referred to as theirs, instead of just Sam’s. Sam had never spoken out against the tiny change, or looked displeased by it, and Alex’s heart felt so full of warmth and contentment that she’d never thought to question it.

So Alex is a co-parent, and she could really, really use some of that old Christmas magic right about now, because she needs this Christmas to be perfect. It’s her first Christmas living with Sam and Ruby, and irrational as it may be Alex needs to prove that she can do this. That she can be there, and make Christmas wonderful for her girls, even though she hasn’t felt genuinely Christmassy in years, and has the weirdest life, and unpredictable job.

She had it all planned out. A relaxed but jolly schedule. Sam and Ruby would be allowed to wake up naturally. They’d have breakfast. Something sweet, waffles, or pancakes, or chocolate cinnamon French toast. Whatever Ruby would like. Then there would be presents. Some time for all of them to appreciate their presents, playing, or reading, or whatever. Then a light lunch, and some time playing in the snow, followed by some hot cocoa, before they head off for dinner at Kara’s with the rest of their family.

Oh and of course the cake. Maybe for afternoon tea, maybe to be taken and shared at dinner, but there would be a cake. A gingerbread cookie cake, with green and white icing. Apparently Ruby’s favourite, but only at Christmas. The rest of the year the girl was all about chocolate.

Which is why Alex is standing in their kitchen at 6 o’clock on Christmas morning, slowly and precisely measuring out the ingredients for Ruby’s favourite cake, even though she’s only just home from a double shift. Following the recipe she’s gotten online to a ‘T’. A print out of the recipe sits propped up against the fruit bowl, and a second copy made into a check list sits next to the mixing bowl.

Early morning baking had not been part of Alex’s plan.

There was supposed to be a professionally made cake delivered yesterday ready for today. Then an alien had been found feeding off a gas pipe down town. A gas pipe that had been supplying a number of businesses with gas for cooking and heating. One of those businesses just happening to be the bakery Alex had ordered her cake from.

She had gotten a full refund at least. Which she had immediately taken to the shops to buy the ingredients she would need. Well, immediately after she had searched up the easiest recipe she could find that still had a high majority of good reviews, so that she could make a shopping list.

She can’t afford to fuck this up. That’s what she tells herself as she triple checks that she has gotten everything she will need, and measured out each ingredient perfectly. Alex has never been much for cooking, but this time she has taken every precaution. Double and triple checked her ratios. Made sure everything she needed to use, including the oven, is clean. Watched videos of other people making the recipe so that she knows exactly how it’s supposed to look at each step.

Her preparation pays off. She mixes the batter, until it’s smooth and aerated like in the videos. She manages to get it into the tray and the tray into the oven without spilling. And little less than an hour later a pleasantly sweet and spicy smell fills the kitchen. The cake risen perfectly, and not a burn, insight. It even withstands the stick test, no undercooked batter sticking to the skewer when she pokes it ever so carefully.

By some minor miracle Alex has even managed to get the icing to swirl green and white properly ready to be poured. She just has to let the cake cool a little more, put the icing on, and then set it aside for later.

“Alex?”

Alex’s head jerks up to look at her girlfriend wide eyed. Sam stands in the door way to the hall in sweat pants, and a frankly horrendous reindeer sweater, with her nose scrunched in confusion, and her eyes still half closed with sleep.

“Why is the oven on?” Sam asks, beginning to drift further into the room.

The oven. Kitchen safety rule number one. Number five? Kitchen safety rule; always turn off the oven when you are done with it to avoid fires. Potentially Christmas ruining fires.

Alex jumps into action, spinning around to turn off the oven. Her elbow knocks something as she goes. It’s not until she’s flicked the dial to ensure the oven is off than she really thinks of the sensation. By then the impact of the cake hitting the ground is echoing in her ears louder than any explosion she has heard in the line of duty.

“No, no, no, no, no,” Alex says frantically, staring down at the cake in horror.

“Alex?!” Sam sounds much more alert now, crossing the space quickly. Alex doesn’t look at her too busy dropping to her knees beside the fallen cake.

The platter Alex had put the cake on in preparation for icing is somehow miraculously intact, and for a few shining second Alex can fool herself into thinking it won’t be so bad. Then she reaches out to turn it over. A horrified gasp passes her lips. The cake has unsurprisingly squashed slightly with the impact, but worse than that it has crumbled into pieces. Two large, one smaller.

Tears burn at Alex’s eyes without falling, and she kneels, one hand covering her mouth.

“Baby, what?” Sam’s question trails off as she rounds the counter and sees the disaster. “Oh, that’s the gingerbread smell.”

Alex’s gaze snaps to Sam, and she is entirely thrown by what she sees there. A smile. Not a mocking one. A soft one. The one Sam gets when Alex manages to get something just right, and make her feel loved. She doesn’t get it. The cake is ruined, but Sam is smiling that smile. She must see something in Alex’s expression. Her watery eyes, or her confused frown, probably both, because Sam’s smile fades. Replaced by a look of concern.

“Baby what’s wrong?”

“It’s ruined,” Alex says gesturing down at the cake. “It was going to be surprise, for later, for you and Ruby, because you both mentioned how you used to get a gingerbread Christmas cake when you lived back in Metropolis, but now it’s ruined, and I don’t know if I can make another one in time for it still to be a surprise for Ruby, and-”

Alex firmly cuts herself off before her rapid-fire speech can turn into a sob.

“I just wanted to make everything perfect, and I worked so hard to make sure this wasn’t one of my normal kitchen disasters and now it’s ruined.” The words come out barely a louder than a whisper, and Alex feels a tear trailing down her cheek.

Sam looks between the cake and Alex, seemingly at a loss for what to say, or what to do. Then she closes her eyes and takes a breath. When she opens them again, she’s smiling one of Alex’s favourite smiles. Full of love and little touch of mischief.

“It’s not ruined, and everything is going to be ok,” Sam says with a confidence that Alex in her overtired, wound up state, can’t quite fathom.

Sam leans over the top of the ruined cake between them and presses a quick kiss to Alex’s slightly parted lips.

“Here,” she says carefully lifting one of the large chunks of cake back onto the platter, “It’s pretty solid, not falling to pieces any more than it has. It’s still cake and onto crumbs.”

Alex watches as she picks up the other two pieces and puts them on the platter too nudging them together so that the cake almost looks whole.

“No need to bake another,” Sam says sunnily.

She springs to her feet and puts the cake back on the counter. Alex stands slowly gaping at Sam. Sam evening the squashed appearance by carefully cutting a layer off the top of each piece to notice her stare. Apparently satisfied that the cake doesn’t have any bits of dirt, or hair, or whatever she has dusting for, Sam makes to grab the icing bowl.

“Sam what are you doing?” Alex asks reaching out to grab Sam’s wrist.

“Finishing the surprise cake for Ruby,” Sam says matter-of-factly.

“But it’s. It was. Sam you can’t just.” Alex tries several times to articulate that the cake is ruined, and that even if it had held together, it’s been on the flaw, but under Sam’s expectant gaze the words just don’t seem to appear.

“Alex relax,” Sam says, coving Alex’s hand on her wrist with her own. “It’s as clean as can be expected, and the icing will glue it back together well enough.”

“Sam it was on the floor,” Alex says, adding extra stress to the word floor.

“For like ten seconds,” Sam scoffs.

“Sam!”

“Babe, you were right when you said we don’t have time to bake another, and I cut off the bits that were directly touching the floor.”

Alex just stares. Sam heaves a sigh.

“It’s not like it’d be the first time Ruby has eaten floor cake Alex.”

Alex’s horrified expression prompts Sam to continue.

“Have you ever been to a toddler’s birthday party? They drop everything. And then pick it back up to eat it.” Sam shudders slightly. “If Ruby can survive eating half of Ronnie Prestons’s birthday cupcake off the ground of a Chuck-E-Cheese playground, she can survive eating a partly sterilised cake that touched our much cleaner kitchen floor.”

Alex opens and closes her mouth twice before raising her hands in surrender.

“Good,” Sam says with smirk. “Now go to bed and get some rest while you can. I’ll finish this up, and get breakfast started.”

“But-”

“No buts,” Sam cuts her off. “I’ve seen the Christmas murder board you’ve been hiding in the garage, I know the game plan for today, and you’re going to need some rest for it.”

“I do not have a Christmas murder board,” Alex says grumpily folding her arms.

She doesn’t. She just happens to have a corkboard with notes about popular Christmas traditions, and things Ruby and Sam have both mentioned liking about the holiday. With some pictures. And maybe some strings connecting traditions, and things Ruby and Sam have mentioned, and store locations for gifts, and supplies. It’s not a murder board.

Sam is laughing, a low throaty sound even as she leans it to kiss the frown off of Alex’s face.

“Go to bed baby.” She nudges Alex out of the kitchen as she reaches to pick up the icing bowl again. “It can’t be the perfect Christmas without you, and you can’t be there if you fall asleep halfway through.”

Grumbling to herself, Alex does as she’s told. Not before claiming another kiss from Sam, who just laughs and swats at Alex’s ass as she shuffles away. Alex falls into their bed, face first and fully clothed. Too tired, after her shift, and her minor cake meltdown to get changed.

When she wakes up hours later it is to the smell of pancakes and freshly brewing coffee. Christmas music filtering through the house.

She finds Ruby and Sam just about finished setting up the table. Ruby tackles her with a hug and a merry Christmas, and Alex hugs her back fiercely, with a smile that is naturally wide.

They eat pancakes for breakfast. Then open presents. A Nintendo switch that may or may not have received some modifications from Winn before Alex had wrapped it, just to add a few games, keeps them busy for a few hours after they set it up. Or at least it keeps Ruby entertained. Sam commandeers the television for her gift, a boxset of some obscure old TV show she had loved as a kid that Alex had managed to track down. Alex basks in their enjoyment, wrapped up snuggly in an oversized sweater knitted to look like armour. A gift from Ruby, because apparently Alex is heroic, just like a knight.

They have the cake after lunch. Sam winks at Alex as she serves Ruby a slice from one of the large pieces so that it doesn’t have the edges of one of the fault lines in it. Alex’s slice has a thick line of icing through it barely holding it together but she doesn’t care.

Ruby is excited to have a cake, just like the ones they used to have. Sam is smiling equals parts love and mischief. And Alex finds that despite all odds the cake actually tastes ok.

She smiles at her little family. Her daughter in all but name, and the woman she loves more than she ever thought possible. For such a rocky start, their Christmas has turned out as near to perfect as Alex could have hoped.

Ruby looks up from her hand held screen long enough to smile back at her, and Sam nuzzles into her neck from where she’s cuddled into Alex’s side as they watch her show, making Alex laugh at the tickling sensation.

For the first time in a long time, Alex thinks she can feel some of that old Christmas magic.

She hopes it holds out until after dinner at Kara’s, when Ruby is in bed, and it will finally be just the two of them.

Sam might have found her Christmas planning in the garage, but Alex knows she hasn’t found the ring box safely hidden away in the secret compartment of a spare pair of Alex’s work boots in the closet.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this brought you a little Christmas joy. Sorry for any mistakes, or if it wasn't exactly what you were hoping for/expecting. It was a little bit of a rush job.


End file.
